From Disney Plus to HBO Max, almost every major established streaming service is experimenting with ways to get into vertical content. It's clear that these companies see video-focused social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram as existential threats. In this arms race for viewers' attention, it has often felt like everyone is trying to find new ways to exist on people's phones. But a new startup thinks that the next step in vertical series' evolution is going to take place on our wide-screen televisions.

Unlike most vertical microdrama / series streaming platforms on the market that have focused on mobile viewing experiences, Vurt ha …

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How it started

Resident Evil has been around for 30 years, but the survival horror series is more popular than ever. The most recent game, Resident Evil Requiem, has sold 8 million copies since it launched in February, already making it the 14th best-selling game that Capcom has ever made. At the same time, a reboot of the Resident Evil film series from Weapons director Zach Cre …

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Xbox is launching a new division, called "XP," that's dedicated to Xbox experiences that aren't video games, including films and TV adaptations, consumer products, live events, and partnerships with creators and brands. Different teams at Xbox already do this work, but it will all now fall under the centralized XP division.

XP formalizes four "investment areas," according to a blog post by Xbox chief strategy officer Matthew Ball:

XBOX PICTURES: Bringing our worlds and characters to new audiences through film, television, and other forms of linear storytelling.

XBOX PRODUCTS: Creating products that are authentic to the fandom that al …

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Cupertino brings the tech backlash to the CBS procedural - an initially awkward combination, but with rewarding results. The show starts off just slightly unsure, but quickly figures out what to do with these strange times, creating fictionalized dupes of the Zizians, Polymarket, Jeff Bezos' looksmaxxing obsession, OpenAI stealing Scarlett Johansson's voice, and the fight for AI guardrails, among other familiar tales, and using them to speak to the feeling of helplessness in the face of rapid change that extends well beyond the greater San Francisco area. It turns out the seemingly outdated tools of broadcast TV are a fantastic way to tackle …

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